B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Launches Historic Expansion of Free Pre-K Seats in More Than 400 School Districts Across New York State

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the historic expansion of free, high-quality Pre-K in more than 400 school districts across New York State - more than half of all public school districts statewide. As the school year kicks off this week, thousands of new Pre-K seats are now online. The Governor's multi-year expansion will bring tens of thousands of new Pre-K seats online across the state over the coming years, as part of her commitment to lower costs for families and to put New York on the path to universal Pre-K.

B-ROLL: Of the Governor participating in the ribbon cutting ceremony is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you, good morning everyone. I caught the 'My Girl' music, a very nice touch. Any Wildcats out there? I'm in the right place, got the colors on, right? I have more color on than you do. But I'm all about showing the school pride and delighted to be here today with some incredible individuals that I just think the world of. We have some great elected officials here. We have Assemblymember Steve Stern. Let's give a round applause to our Assemblymember,Steve Stern. Rebecca Sanin, our Suffolk County legislator, as you've heard a lot of events here. Tom Donnelly, County legislator, thank you very much, Tom. Our local board members, our town board members, but also, Bob Vecchio, the executive director of the Nassau School Boards Association. Bob, good to see you again - we've had a lot of conversations. Thank you. And of course, we have Catherine Romano, the Area 12 director of the School Boards Association. We've got to love our school boards.

I will digress for a moment and say that I have been elected to every single level of government there is town, county, state, federal. The only one I don't have the courage for is the school board - so not going there. But thank you for all you do, the school board members and of course the president of the South Huntington School Board and all the members of the school board. Nicholas Ciappetta, I want to thank him for all he does leading the charge here. Our superintendent Vito D'Elia of Southampton School district, Vito. And Renee Schumm, the principal of the Silas Wood Pre-K Center. And you'll be hearing from Giovanna Bucino, a parent here who also has a son, Mateo is here, and a former PTA president. God bless you for doing that as well. I did the whole PTA thing too and it is when people know you're in office, whether it's PTA or Governor, they always come up to you when you're trying to grocery shop for the kids breakfast and they tell you all the problems - so I've been there. But here today to celebrate. Also this is personal because I was just FaceTiming a little four-year-old who happens to be my granddaughter, who is heading off to her second day of preschool. But then, sadly, they're in another state. So, but I made the observation that if you came here, you'd have free breakfast and lunches. As I was FaceTiming, watching her father struggle to get her to eat breakfast, I said, "Come to New York. We got it covered. Hang out in grandma's state. You won't have to worry about it."

So I'm so used to spending some time with some delightful four year olds who I can relate to right here at the preschool center or the Pre-K program here. And they're just so innocent, they're sweet, they're just excited because they don't really know who's around, but they know it's a fun place to be and it's just a nurturing, loving environment. And if we can give that to our kids at age four, otherwise, if they're not in a setting like this, a structured setting with loving teachers and programming that's geared for their age, to really set them up for success. Set them up for kindergarten, what else are they going to be doing right now? What would they be doing? And I don't have to worry about that anymore, because we're making a profound difference in investing in the facilities, the schools, the teachers who are making this happen and giving them a better shot at success.

And I see them in the reminder of what's possible - why as parents this is everything. What you can do for our kids when they're that young will make a profound difference in their success later on. And I want to say, for many kids this is their first time in this environment. I also was noting that about half the kids have Spanish as their first language, and this is the place they're going to become more understanding of the language. I was going through my high school Spanish very well. I remembered all the colors, so I was having a nice conversation with a little four year old. She was very impressed as I was drawing a picture of her getting all the right colors that I could remember. Every child deserves that opportunity. I think we can all agree on it. Every child deserves an opportunity. And that's why today I am so proud as the Governor of the great State of New York, to launch the largest investment in four year old programs, Pre-K across the entire state and we are doing this right now, starting in places like this. We put over $560 million behind this year alone, bringing our total Pre-K investment to $1.6 billion, that never happened before. So whether it's here at Southampton or across the state - and that investment is up 70 percent since I became Governor and maybe it took a mom Governor to understand how important this was. 400 school districts, more than half the districts of New York are expanding their Pre-K offerings this year. We've added thousands of new seats with tens of thousands more to come. And here on Long Island, 84 school districts are expanding their programs as well, many are offering Pre-K to four-year-olds for the first time ever. So whether it's expanding the program or first time doing this, this is the year everything changes for these kids. And just two years ago, this district served 126 Pre-K students. So you're ahead of your time. And now you have, what, about 75 percent of eligible students and the number has doubled to more than 300 - just in two years doubled to 300.

So for the first time any eligible four year old in the district who wants a seat will have a seat here. And that's a game changer for parents. No lottery, no waitlist, no parents wondering if their child will be left out. And this program was designed with working parents in mind as well, because we have an extended day options available early mornings to the end of the workday. That's how you get a lot of stress off of parents. Not having to rush out the door at a certain time to get the child. My granddaughter doesn't have that either. I said "move to New York family" because they're always having issues like who's going to run, who's going to leave work, who's going to slip out and then have to go back to work later. So I understand profoundly what those challenges for young families are all about. And really, that's just the power of universal Pre-K. Now we've been building for this moment for a while. In my 2025 State of the State, I made a commitment to put New York State on a path toward universal Pre-K, universal child care, universal even 2-K programs to make sure that we're giving our kids that best start, but also taking an enormous expense off of parents.

When you think about the cost of childcare today, upwards of $20,000, sometimes $40,000 per child. Now, if you're a parent, if you're making minimum or lower wage and you're spending that much on childcare, it just doesn't work, it doesn't add up. So I faced this when I was a young mom. You did not know when I had a great job I loved on Capitol Hill, did my dream job working for Senator Moynihan, finally got there. And then of course, we wanted a family as well. And I could not find affordable, accessible child care at all. So it is interesting to me that that was a challenge. I had to leave the job and our income plummeted literally. My income was gone for many years. But those babies, babies today don't have it any easier. The government and society still did not understand that if we take care of these young families at this age and take this stress and this cost off of them, then life gets a little bit easier. And that's what I want for New York State.

I want life to be easier for our family so no one ever contemplates going somewhere else because of the hassles and the stress of being a parent in the state. So that's our gift to New Yorkers, but also the investment in their children is investing in our future as well. It's not just about them. We're investing in the future workforce, and we're giving them the skills they need at this young age that are going to propel them to a better path. So by 2028, after laying out the roadmap, by 2028 every single four year old in New York State will have access to high quality Pre-K, whereas only half before we're on the path within two years will be there. More classrooms, more seats and as I said, this is all about making your family my fight. It's personal to me that I look out as a mom. I look at 20 million New Yorkers, I've got a big family, and I've got to look out for everybody, but especially the little ones, the little ones who need us the most.

So this is a labor of love for me as well as the Governor of this great state. So I think everyone who's been involved in this, I think my team, I want to make sure that people consider New York State the best place in America to raise a family. And right here in this great county, I know there's many, many amenities and the quality of life is high, but it all starts right here. Believing in this community, believing in a school district like this, believing in the leadership, believing the elected officials who all have the same interests at heart. Making this community a better place, a safer place, a more enriched place to raise your children.

So thank you very much, everyone. I'm looking forward to hearing from our speakers. But we're going to be cutting the ribbon officially to open the Silas Wood Pre-K Center. It took years of planning, lots of work, but you got it done, congratulations.

Let me introduce our superintendent, Vito D'Elia of the South Huntington School District to deliver some remarks.

Mister school superintendent.